Fishing up the Food Web?: 12,000 Years of Maritime Subsistence and Adaptive Adjustments on California’s Channel Islands1 Jon M. Erlandson,2,5 Torben C. Rick,3 and Todd J. Braje4 Abstract: Archaeologists working on California’s northern Channel Islands have produced an essentially continuous record of Native American fishing and nearshore ecological changes spanning the last 12,000 years. To search for evidence of Pauly’s ‘‘fishing down the foodweb’’ pattern typical of recent histor- ical fisheries, we analyzed variation in the dietary importance of major marine faunal classes (shellfish, fish, marine mammals) on the islands through time. Faunal data suggest that the Island Chumash and their predecessors focused pri- marily on low-trophic-level shellfish during the Early and Middle Holocene, be- fore shifting their economic focus to finfish and pinnipeds during the Late Holocene. Replicated in faunal sequences from the adjacent mainland, this trans-Holocene pattern suggests that Native Americans fished up the food web, a strategy that may have been more sustainable and had fewer ecological repercussions. Emerging technological data suggest, however, that some of the earliest Channel Islanders focused more heavily on higher-trophic-level animals, including marine mammals, seabirds, and waterfowl. These data emphasize the differences between the primarily subsistence-based foraging strategies of an- cient Channel Islanders and the globalized market-based fisheries of modern and historic times, with important implications for understanding the long- term evolution and historical ecology of marine ecosystems. Until quite recently most scholars be- Bailey 2004, Erlandson 2001). Consequently, lieved that humans developed boats, maritime there was little reason to think that humans technologies, and intensive fishing economies colonized most islands or had serious impacts during only the last 10,000 years or less (see on coastal fisheries and ecosystems until quite late in the Holocene (Erlandson and Rick 2008). This idea may be true for the more re- 1 Research has been supported by grants and other as- mote Pacific islands of Micronesia, Melane- sistance from the National Science Foundation, National sia, and Polynesia, first settled by maritime Park Service, University of Oregon, Southern Methodist University, National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. agriculturalists during the Late Holocene, Navy, Western Parks Association, the Foundation for but it may not apply for many of the less- Exploration and Research on Cultural Origins, and the remote islands of the Pacific Rim, especially Marine Biology Conservation Institute. Manuscript ac- Island Southeast Asia, Australia and New cepted 30 January 2009. 2 Museum of Natural and Cultural History and De- Guinea, western Melanesia, and the Ryukyu partment of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eu- Islands, which were all colonized by seafaring gene, Oregon 97403-1224. peoples between @50,000 and 35,000 years 3 Archaeobiology Program, Department of Anthro- ago (Erlandson 2002). pology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithso- The idea that maritime peoples may have nian Institution, Washington D.C. 20013-7012. 4 Department of Anthropology, Humboldt State Uni- contributed to the initial colonization of the versity, Arcata, California 95521. Americas has also gained credibility in recent 5 Corresponding author (e-mail: jerland@uoregon. years, as increasingly early sites have been edu). found along the Pacific Coast of the Americas (e.g., Sandweiss et al. 1998, Johnson et al. Pacific Science (2009), vol. 63, no. 4:711–724 2002, Fedje et al. 2004, Des Lauriers 2006, : 2009 by University of Hawai‘i Press Dillehay et al. 2008, Erlandson et al. 2008a), All rights reserved despite dramatic changes in coastal landscapes 711 . 712 PACIFIC SCIENCE October 2009 as global sea levels rose over 100 m since the of whether ancient fishing patterns follow end of the Last Glacial. Currently, the ear- historical patterns of commercial fishing by liest evidence for seafaring in the New World focusing first on larger species and higher comes from California’s northern Channel trophic levels—the ‘‘fishing down the food Islands, first settled by maritime Paleocoastal web’’ pattern identified by Pauly et al. (1998). peoples at least 13,000 years ago. In modeling ancient economies, archaeol- California’s Pacific Coast was once thought ogists often assume that hunter-gatherers fo- to have been colonized by interior peoples cused first on larger species that provided driven westward by increasing aridity in the higher caloric returns. The largest animals desert interior about 7,000 years ago, fol- in terrestrial ecosystems are often herbivores lowed by a gradual adaptation to life by the that exist at lower trophic levels, however, sea. The intensive maritime fishing societies and are more abundant than the carnivores of Chumash and Tongva peoples of the that prey on them. In marine ecosystems, southern California Coast, first described by the subsistence choices of coastal hunter- Europeans who explored and settled the area gatherers are influenced by similar economic from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries and ecological principles, as well as issues of A.D., were thought to have developed only differential accessibility (i.e., intertidal versus during the last few thousand years. Today, pelagic) and the need for specialized mari- we know that the Channel Islands were first time technologies (seaworthy boats, harpoons, settled by seafaring Paleo-Indians and that nets, etc.) to access certain habitats and ani- relatively intensive coastal economies have mals. Lacking some of the sophisticated tech- probably existed on the islands ever since nologies available to modern and historic (Rick et al. 2005, Erlandson et al. 2008a). commercial fisheries, it is uncertain whether On San Miguel and Santa Rosa islands alone, prehistoric peoples generally followed similar almost 40 sites dated from 13,000 to 8,000 patterns of focusing first on larger animals years ago have been identified—including the and higher trophic levels. Archaeological earliest shell middens in North America— data provide the opportunity to explore such providing evidence for shellfish collecting, issues through the examination of faunal as- fishing, and the hunting of marine mammals semblages spanning very long sequences of and birds by paleocoastal peoples. time. In the last few years, we have used a grow- ing body of high-resolution archaeological Background and paleoecological data to examine trans- Holocene patterns of human adaptations and On California’s northern Channel Islands impacts on California’s Channel Island eco- (Figure 1), thousands of archaeological sites systems (e.g., Erlandson et al. 2004, Braje contain the remnants of human occupations 2007, Rick et al. 2008a). These impacts in- spanning at least 13,000 years. These sites clude possible trophic cascades triggered in include numerous shell middens—refuse de- kelp forest ecosystems by intensive human posits containing shells, bones, charcoal, arti- hunting of sea otters beginning as early as facts, and other cultural debris left behind by 8,000 years ago (Erlandson et al. 2005), a ancient peoples—that provide detailed infor- measurable decline in the average size of mation on the nature of local terrestrial and key shellfish prey species through time (Braje marine ecosystems; human hunting, fishing, et al. 2007, Erlandson et al. 2008b), and the and foraging patterns; and the changing na- introduction of dogs and foxes to fragile is- ture of human impacts on local environ- land biota (Rick et al. 2008b, 2009). In this ments. When Spanish explorers first sailed paper, we use faunal and technological rec- into the Santa Barbara Channel area in A.D. ords from Channel Islands archaeological 1542, they found large and sedentary popula- sites to examine patterns of fishing and tions of Chumash Indians living in numerous maritime subsistence through the past 12,000 coastal towns and villages on the mainland years. Specifically, we address the question and the islands. The densest populations . Fishing up the Food Web? Erlandson et al. 713 Figure 1. Map of the Santa Barbara Channel and San Miguel Island. were found around several large and pro- in some cases, pinnipeds (Glassow and Wil- ductive estuaries along the mainland coast, coxon 1988, Lambert 1993, Erlandson and where terrestrial plant foods (acorns, etc.) Rick 2002, Kennett 2005). Dietary recon- were abundant and a wide variety of animals structions for faunal remains from mainland (deer, fish, shellfish, etc.) were available from sites dating from @9,000 to 6,000 years ago marine and terrestrial ecosystems closely suggest that shellfish provided 80%–90% of stacked between the open ocean and moun- the edible meat represented, but most sites tains that rise rapidly from the sea. The dating to the past 2,500 years show a reversal, Island Chumash had far fewer terrestrial re- with finfish providing 80%–90% of the edi- sources, in contrast, and relied more heavily ble meat. This shift coincides, in part, with on marine resources and trade with mainland the appearance of j-shaped and circular shell peoples (see Arnold 2001, Kennett 2005, Rick fishhooks about 2,500 years ago (Rick et al. 2007). We know that plant foods were an 2002), and large pelagic species such as tunas, important component of Channel Island swordfish, and sharks are more common economies throughout the Holocene, but after about A.D. 500, when the oceangoing preservation problems prevent us from quan-